14-36,000 Years Ago Winds Across North America From the East

[Rokcet Scientist]

Did you ever figure out what the problem was?

Well, after the boss' intervention I first tried to connect to the forum server via another IP address – located in my region! But I got the same as before: the server couldn't be found.
Then I tried still another IP address, this one through a proxy server probably located very far from where I am. The US, Russia, or China come to mind as the best odds, statistically. That worked! I got in! First time in months!

This gives me firm reason to suspect that my original, first IP address, the one I always use(d) to log on, is just one in a whole bunch of IP addresses, located right here in this region, that were banned 'en bloc' by the server that the board is hosted on. So my sleuthing concludes that some rogue IT type with access to this server threw a blanket IP ban on a whole 'group' of geographically located IP addresses. Probably thousands, if not a greater magnitude...

Anyway: I got in. Albeit via proxy server. And that is far from ideal, very flakey, actually, because it doesn't work on all links within the board, so that I have to re-establish a new connection (via the proxy server) all the time...

[kbs2244]

First; welcome back.

Second;
Re: Walking the North Atlantic.
I have never done it, but from all the PICs and videos I have seen, an ice pack dosn't look like a very easy place to walk.
Pressure ridges, cracks, soft snow, etc, etc.

Maybe paddle along the edge and over night camp on the ice?

[curious01]

First; welcome back.

Second;
Re: Walking the North Atlantic.
I have never done it, but from all the PICs and videos I have seen, an ice pack dosn't look like a very easy place to walk.
Pressure ridges, cracks, soft snow, etc, etc.

Maybe paddle along the edge and over night camp on the ice?

That sounds likely. That's what I would do, were I to be stuck on an ice sheet. The closest food source would be the ocean, so I'd stick along the edges.

[Minimalist]

Maybe paddle along the edge and over night camp on the ice?

Precisely Stafford's hypothesis. Hunters in small boats traveling along the edge of the ice because, among other things, that's where the sea mammals would be. Moreover, they weren't "migrating" or following any sort of "plan" in the modern sense. They were just doing their thing and following the animals and ended up in N.A. They could have gone back the same way or they could have stayed in now submerged camps and in any case they would have been blasted by Firestone's comet and so left no genetic impact at all.

But their artifacts are here.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Maybe paddle along the edge and over night camp on the ice?

Absolutely! That was why they were there in the first place: they simply followed their food source: nice, big, fat, protein super-rich sea mammals and Great Auks that were dead-easy to catch. Even without 'boats'. Much better caloric value (= nutrition), and many less hunting dangers than going after the then fast dwindling mega fauna on the European continent. They lived exactly like (some) Inuit still do: never even touching dry land in their entire lifetimes. They were born, lived their entire lives, and died on the ice. For generations.
And that's how they got to America. Eventually. By sheer accident. Imo.

[Digit]

And their sharp tools for butchering these mammals were made of...?

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

And their sharp tools for butchering these mammals were made of...?

Bone and ivory. Exactly like the Inuit do/did.

[Digit]

http://www.ih.k12.oh.us/ps/inuit/inuittools.htm

The Inuit used a knife with a triangular stone blade and a wooden 'T' shaped handle called an ulu for skinning animals.

No stone on the ice, and though I confess to not having tried it I suspect that butchering with a bone knife might be a tad difficult.

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

The Inuit used a knife with a triangular stone blade and a wooden 'T' shaped handle called an ulu for skinning animals.

Inuit that were in contact with dry land probably did. But by no means exclusively. I've seen plenty of Inuit needles, made of bone, and razorsharp, that they used (now they use steel) to sew seal and walrus skins together. About the toughest material you could have to sew! I've actually seen 'm do it in demonstrations. Like I've seen them use bone scrapers to clean both the outside and inside of seal and walrus hide. I.o.w. bone, as a material for tools, is certainly up to the task.

[Minimalist]

I don't see a problem with this. A discussion I had with Charlie one time suggests that large spear points, as the broke or dulled, were resharpened into smaller points. When they got too small for a point, they would have been suitable scrapers or cutters. I doubt that this was an economic model which encouraged waste.

How difficult would it have been to carry a core of flint in each boat? Boats are ideal for carrying stuff and it isn't as if they had to lug along their flat screen tvs or computers. If they needed to make a new spear point, they hacked a piece of the core and started shaping.

I would think that fire would be a bigger problem. Somehow, eating raw seal or sea lion does not seem too appetizing but, perhaps that's just me?

[Digit]

My point gentlemen is what sort of an edge can you get on bone?
I grant that it will make durable 'points', but can it take and hold an 'edge?'
Can you carve flesh from the bone, can you get through the hide of a Walrus with a bone edge?
I addition did Inuit ever live entirely on the ice with no access to land?

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

How difficult would it have been to carry a core of flint in each boat? Boats are ideal for carrying stuff and it isn't as if they had to lug along their flat screen tvs or computers. If they needed to make a new spear point, they hacked a piece of the core and started shaping.

I would think that fire would be a bigger problem.

There are many ways to skin a cat! Flint is just one. Remember twirling one dried piece of branch/twig into another to make fire when you were playing cowboys and indians, or rather 'cavemen', or, in my case, boy scout, when you were in the woods as a boy?
And that's just one way without flint. There are many more. Obviously they – Inuit as well as Solutreans – didn't have either flint or wood on the ice to make sparks or a glow. So they must have used another m.o. Time for some research, methinks. Because I'm confident both ethnic groups did make fire on the ice.
I do remember the Inuit use(d) animal fat as fuel, to keep the fire going. For heat, cooking, and light.

Somehow, eating raw seal or sea lion does not seem too appetizing but, perhaps that's just me?

Indeed, Min, that is just you. Or rather it is a cultural thing. You must have had sushi sometime, right? That's raw fish. It's all an acquired taste. Like beer and linguini...

[Digit]

All of your objections vanish RS with a boat.

Roy.

[Minimalist]

You must have had sushi sometime, right?

Bait.

[Rokcet Scientist]

All of your objections vanish RS with a boat.

I think 'a boat' is too broad, Roy. But anyway, my point is that – with or without boats – the Solutreans could cross the Atlantic. And therefore did.